Canberra Raiders Cup: Minor Semi Final Preview
The West Belconnen Warriors welcome the Tuggeranong Bushrangers to Raiders Belconnen on Sunday afternoon in a must win elimination final.
The West Belconnen Warriors enter this weekend's matchup after a twenty-all draw against the Gungahlin Bulls, with Captain Coach Ryan McQueen particularly critical of the performance.
“It was probably one of our worst of the year to be honest, story of our season at the moment," McQueen said.
"We just seemed to hurt ourselves and put ourselves under immense pressure and going into the finals we can’t be doing that; it's not the way we wanted to go into the finals but also probably good to get that one out of the way.”
The Warriors will be looking to go back to basics against the Bushrangers on Sunday with this holding the key for the home side.
"We just need to hold the ball, complete our sets and stick to our game plan. We just keep going away from that and like I said, hurting ourselves."
After starting the season well, the Warriors have slowly drifted down the ladder and despite getting positive results, McQueen believes they aren't completely back on track.
"You can see it from our previous performances; we’re not out of that hole but we’re definitely getting better."
"We’re getting out of it but we’re definitely not out of the woodwork just yet.”
The Warriors come up against a Bushrangers outfit that has been on a ten-game win streak, with the Warriors on high alert about what to expect on Sunday.
"They’re definitely going be hard to beat, we didn’t want to be going out to Tuggeranong to do it that’s for sure, so getting that home semi’s been massive for us and we’ve just got to turn up on the day and do the best we can."
“It's going to be a 1-17 performance, probably can’t single out a single player there, everyone’s got to be on and ready to go. It's going to be a tough task, but we’ll be up for it.”
Whilst, for the Bushrangers they enter this weekend after securing their tenth consecutive victory against the Magpies, with Captain Co-Coach Darby Medlyn pleased with his side's defensive effort.
"I think our defence was really good on the weekend. We were pretty critical of how we’ve been going, and we’ve been doing well but we really wanted to aim up on the weekend and take that momentum into semis. That was a must-win game for us so yeah, we were really pleased.”
After six losses to begin the season, many had written off the side from Tuggeranong, however the connectivity and growth of the group has ensured they feature in the finals.
“We’ve got such a good group of boys, and I’ve just enjoyed playing with them so much and you know I’m really proud of our progress but our goal as a squad and as a club is – we’ve never won a first-grade premiership so that’s what we’re chasing."
"I’m really proud of where we’re at, at the moment, but we’ve still got a lot to go and a lot of big tasks ahead of us”
Despite, there recent run of results the Bushrangers are wary that with finals comes a different ball game and are using the motivation of previous finals heartache in this final's campaign.
“Semi-finals is a different story; the pace goes up and the stakes are higher. We’re going to be up for it, and we do take a lot of confidence out of that, but Westies are a very tough team and they’re going to be at home, so we know what we’re up for, but we’re really looking forward to it."
"We’ve fallen short before a fair few times so we’re very hungry but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves."
"We’ve still got two games and then if we get there [to the grand final], we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves at all, so we’re just worried about this week against Westies it's going be a big task for us."
Sunday afternoon is shaping to be fantastic finals showdown with both the Warriors and Bushrangers sure to leave it all out there on the field, as for the loser their season comes to a screeching holt.
